Sorry
by stolendreams
Summary: A missing scene from Cyberwoman.


Title: Sorry   
Author: Stolendreams  
Rating: K+  
Pairing: None  
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.  
Notes: I wasn't going to write this, there are a load of cyberwoman fics out there, but the plot bunny wouldn't go away until I did. The plot bunny also really wanted this to be Jack/Ianto but somehow that never happened. My first Torchwood fic. Please R&R

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For a minute there's no sound except the harsh breathing of Gwen, Tosh and Owen beside him and the broken sobs of Ianto on the floor in front of them. It seems almost wrong that such a small room could hold so much carnage, so much blood, two bodies, one human and one only partially so, and a broken man kneeling in the middle of it all, surrounded by machinery that should have been destroyed long ago. The silence is horrific and seemingly endless.

Then it is broken and Jack wishes it hadn't been. Ianto lurches to his feet, and Jack notes that Owen instinctively raises his gun but he doesn't comment on it because now isn't the time. Ianto lunges at Jack suddenly. He's screaming in Welsh and Jack catches sight of Gwen's face out of the corner of his eye just long enough to realise he's better off not understanding what Ianto is saying. Ianto's first few punches are fairly accurate, assuming it's Jack's chest he's aiming at, but Ianto is crying so hard and shouting so much that there's a good chance he doesn't have a clue what he's aiming for. Either way they hurt.

Over Ianto's desperate but unintelligible cries Jack can make out Tosh pleading with Ianto to stop and Gwen is calling out something he can't quite make out, but he thinks she's calling to Ianto in Welsh. It's hard to pay much attention though when he's trying to hold onto Ianto with surprisingly little success, he'd never realised Ianto was quite as strong as he is. The suddenly Owen has grabbed Ianto from behind and is just about managing to keep Ianto from getting close enough to attack Jack again.

Ianto throws one last sentence at Jack in Welsh and he once more catches sight of the look on Gwen's face and makes a note to at least find out the gist of what Ianto is saying later, if not the actual words, it's probably better if he never finds out the exact translation.

"Let go of me!" Ianto snaps at Owen, he's stopped fighting so hard, just struggling now against Owen's grip. "You're no better than him you know. Just because he gave the orders, it was still your fingers on the trigger." Behind him Jack hears Gwen gasp and he remembers that it's the first time she fired a gun except in training and that later he'll need to talk to her and make sure she's okay with it.

As suddenly as Ianto's anger came it disappears, and without warning he slumps in Owen's arms sobbing. If the scene weren't so heartbreaking the look of discomfort and awkwardness on Owen's face would have been funny. The only thing keeping Ianto from simply collapsing in a heap on the floor is Owen's arms around him, and the doctor is shooting desperate looks over Jack's shoulder, presumably hoping Tosh or Gwen will relieve him of his burden. Jack saves them the trouble.

"We're going to need witness statements placing her somewhere far away from here," he says to Tosh, indicating the body of the pizza delivery girl, keeping his voice low. "And there's a lot of cleaning up needs doing upstairs."

He doesn't wait for a reply, just steps forward and wraps his arms around Ianto, pulling him from Owen's arms and into his embrace. Ianto tries to pull away from him, struggling against Jack's chest. Owen practically bolts from the room the second Ianto is removed from his arms, Tosh follows slower, and Gwen hesitates the longest. Before she leaves she reaches out and touches Ianto's hair, murmurs something to him in Welsh. It briefly occurs to Jack that maybe he should learn Welsh, because being the boss isn't made any easier by the fact that two his employees can converse in a language he can't even manage two words in. Then Gwen is gone, leaving Jack to sink slowly to the floor with Ianto cradled in his arms, all thoughts of learning new languages forgotten.

"You killed her. I loved her and you killed her. I loved her," Ianto repeats over and over through his sobs, his sentences bleeding into one another until Jack can barely distinguish the words from each other and only knows what Ianto is saying because he's been saying the same thing for minutes, or maybe hours, or even days, he has no idea how much time has passed.

"I'm sorry," he replies, over and over. "I'm so sorry."

And he is. Not for killing her. Not for threatening Ianto. Not even for letting the Pterodactyl attack Lisa in front of Ianto's eyes. But he's sorry that he didn't know before. He's sorry that he didn't pay enough attention to see what was happening before it got out of control. He's sorry that he didn't see Ianto's potential before. And most of all he's sorry that Ianto is so broken because of those mistakes.


End file.
